Consultation on the extension of the
Public Lending Right to Rights of holders
of books in non-print formats
February 2014
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holder of
Books in Non-print Formats
Introduction
1.
This consultation seeks your views on the practical detail of the changes that
will need to be made to the Public Lending Right (PLR) Scheme so that it
covers:



2.
audio-books;
e-books downloaded on a library’s premises for use away from library
premises1; and
producers and narrators
The Government does not propose to make any changes to the existing
provisions of the PLR Scheme which only covers printed and bound books.
The proposed changes are intended simply to mirror, as far as possible, those
arrangements and extend them to audio-books and on-site e-books.
About this consultation
3.
The Digital Economy Act 2010 (the DEA) contains provisions2 for the
extension of the PLR to loans by public libraries of audio-books and to ebooks downloaded on a library’s premises. One of the recommendations
made by William Sieghart in his ‘Independent Review of E-lending in English
Public Libraries’3 was that the Government should enact those provisions. As
stated in the Government Responsei4in the challenging economic climate, it
has not been possible to do so. However, in the Government Spending Round
2015/16 funding for Public Lending Right was protected and will be
maintained at 2014-15 levels in 2015-16. This was specifically to implement
and deliver the extension of the PLR scheme to onsite loans of e-books and
audio-books, as provided for in the Digital Economy Act 2010.5
4.
This consultation seeks the opinions from stakeholders across the UK about
the effects of such changes, as well as any views on the proposals outlined
here.
2
Sections 43 and 47.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-independent-review-of-e-lending-in-public-libraries-in-england
4 Government Response to the Independent Review of E-lending in Public Libraries in England’ March 2013
5https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210554/Public_Lending_RightLetter.pdf
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Responding to this consultation
5.
We would encourage individual authors, translators, illustrators, librarians,
producers and narrators to relay their views through a relevant representative
group (e.g. the Society of Authors), rather than responding individually.
Comments from individuals and those who are not members of trade or
professional bodies are of course welcome.
6.
A list showing the organisations to which this consultation has been sent
directly is attached at Annex A.
7.
Responses to:
Libraries Team
Consultation on the Extension of Public Lending Right
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
4th Floor
100 Parliament Street
London SW1A 2BQ
Email: PLRextensionaudio&e@culture.gsi.gov.uk
8.
The consultation starts on 13th February 2014 and will close on 13th March
2014.
9.
As this is largely of specialist interest, this will be a purely written exercise.
Responses can be submitted in hard copy or by email.
10.
DCMS will publish a summary of the responses and a statement outlining next
steps within 4 weeks of the closing date.
11.
The consultation will be carried out in accordance with the Code of Practice
on Consultation and the seven consultation criteria listed at Annex B.
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Background
What is the Public Lending Right?
12.
The Public Lending Right (PLR) is the right of “authors”6 to receive
compensatory payment for the loans of their printed books from public
libraries in the UK. The Public Lending Right Act 1979 (the “1979 Act”)
established this right, and the rules of operation (the PLR Scheme) were set
out in secondary legislation in 1982 (under the Public Lending Right Scheme
1982 (Commencement) Order 1982).
13.
The PLR Scheme has been managed by the British Library Board (“the
Board”) since 1 October 2013, and is grant funded by the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport. Authors resident in the UK and other European
Economic Area (EEA) states are eligible to apply for registration in respect of
eligible works
14.
A register of eligible authors and books is maintained by the PLR office. PLR
entitlement for registered authors continues for 70 years after death.
15.
Payments are made annually to eligible authors who register their books with
the Board. The amounts paid are calculated on the basis of loans data
collected from a sample of public libraries in the UK which is ‘grossed’ up by
the PLR computer to provide a national estimate for the loans of each book.
16.
More than 22,000 writers, illustrators, photographers, translators and editors
who have contributed to books lent out by public libraries receive PLR
payments each year. Where two or more contributors to a book qualify for
registration they must agree shares in the book based on their respective
contributions. Translators and editors qualify for fixed shares (30% and 20%
respectively). In 2014, £6.1 million was distributed, equating to a rate per loan
of 6.20 pence. A maximum payment per author of £6,600 applies.
17.
This consultation is therefore applicable to payments from spring 2016, based
on loans data collected within the period 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015.
Getting to this stage
18.
The European Union Rental and Lending Directive 20067 gives certain rights
holders an exclusive right to license or prohibit the lending of their works by
libraries. However, Member States may derogate from the grant of this
exclusive right provided that they remunerate rights holders for the loans of
their works.
19.
In the UK, lending rights are currently conferred upon authors, performers and
producers by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the 1988 Act)
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As defined in section 5(2) of the Public Lending Right Act 1979
Directive 2006/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on Rental Right
and Lending Right and on Certain Rights related to Copyright in the field of Intellectual Property
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
allowing these rights holders to authorise or prohibit the lending of their works.
These rights can be assigned or licensed to others by contract which can, in
practice, give rise to a payment for such consent and/or an on-going
arrangement to reflect the right to receive remuneration for lending.
20.
The 1988 Act provides that any eligible works currently lent under the PLR
Scheme are lent without infringing copyright under the 1988 Act8, and the
PLR Scheme financially compensates eligible and registered authors for such
‘implied consent’ by making payments to authors on the basis of how often
their books are borrowed from public libraries. The PLR Scheme is currently
restricted to authors, editors and translators of printed books.
21.
In order for public libraries to make loans of audio-books or e-books, the law
currently requires libraries to seek individual contractual arrangements from
rights holders.
22.
Extending the PLR Scheme to include new types of works and new types of
rights holders removes the need for libraries to obtain consent for lending of
newly eligible works. In exchange for this expanded ‘exemption’, the Scheme
will be required to remunerate the rights holders of newly eligible works where
such rights holders were eligible and registered with the PLR Scheme.
23.
As under the current provisions of the PLR Scheme, eligibility would apply to
all rights holders primarily resident within the EEA. In 2013, 3% of the PLR
central fund was paid out to rights holders elsewhere in Europe. The lending
rights of non-EEA rights holders conferred by the 1998 Act will be preserved,
and these individuals will remain able to license or assign these rights to
libraries (and other persons) independently. We renew our encouragement of
these rights holders, their collecting agencies and the library sector to ensure
the appropriate arrangements for consent from, and licensing payments to,
such rights holders are in place.
24.
PLR payments cannot currently be made in respect of audio-book and ebooks formats but this will be possible once the relevant provisions in the DEA
are brought into force. Section 43 of the DEA contains provisions to extend
the Public Lending Right Act 1979 so that the term ‘book’ includes audio-book
and e-book and the term ‘author’, in the case of a work recorded as a sound
recording, includes a producer and narrator.
25.
These provisions will come into force before 1 July 2014 to enable loans data
to be collected during the period 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015.
Proposed amendments to the PLR Scheme
26.
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The Government is proposing to amend the PLR Scheme so that it extends to
audio-books and on-site e-books following the existing provisions in the PLR
Scheme as far as possible. There are instances, however, where the
Sections.40A(1(a) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
arrangements for registration of audio-books and on-site e-books and the
apportionment of the PLR shares will need to be slightly different to provide
greater certainty for rights holders and the administration of the PLR Scheme.
Licences
27.
Once the PLR Scheme is extended to audio-books, e-books downloaded on a
library’s premises for use away from library premises, narrators and
producers, it will not be possible for rights holders to enter new ‘licences and
contractual arrangements with public libraries to lend their audio-books and
their e-books when downloaded on a library’s premises. This is because
public libraries will not be liable for any infringement for making any such loan.
28.
However, any existing licences and contractual arrangements between
libraries and rights holders will be preserved. This means that they can run
their agreed term, but such libraries and rights holders will be free to negotiate
the termination of such licences and arrangements and join the newly
expanded PLR Scheme instead.
29.
Rights holders would be able to register their works with the Board under the
PLR Scheme at the point after any existing agreement or licence ends or is
terminated. They must do this during the 1 July 2014 – 30 June 2015 period
in order, potentially, to qualify for a PLR payment in February 2016.
30.
The practical justification for this approach is that it:
-
-
will provide greater clarity and consistency in the arrangements governing
remuneration of authors for the lending out of their works by public
libraries, and provide an independent means of ensuring that they and
other rights holders receive appropriate remuneration for the free loans of
their works;
will mirror the system for printed works in the PLR Scheme;
will remove the burden of making contractual arrangements;
may encourage greater acquisition and lending of such works by public
libraries.
Assignments/ licenses of rights by authors, narrators and producers
31.
Eligible authors (i.e. authors, translators, editors, narrators and producers) will
need to be certain of the extent of the lending rights which they retain in an
eligible work (i.e. to what extent they have not previously assigned or licensed
such rights) before registering for PLR payments with the Board
Eligibility criteria
32.
Extending the PLR Scheme to audio-books will introduce two new categories
of contributor who will potentially be eligible to join the PLR Scheme – the
narrator and the producer. It will also require some changes to the Scheme’s
eligibility provisions for the following existing categories of contributor – the
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
author, translator and editor. So that the eligibility of these contributors can
be verified, we are proposing that the following requirements should apply:
33.

Authors and narrators are named on the outside of the case containing the
audio-book. We are proposing to rely on the naming of these rights
holders on the case of the audio-book in order to verify their
eligibility, and the Scheme will be amended accordingly.

Producers, editors and translators are not usually named on the case
containing the audio-book. Therefore, our proposal is that these
contributors be required to provide a copy of their contract with the
publisher when registering with the Board in relation to an audiobook.
The current requirement for any eligible books to have an International
Standard Book Number (ISBN) number will continue to apply. The ISBN
system is voluntary, and authors who self-publish may elect not to register
their works for an ISBN. Nevertheless, we propose that the requirement
for an ISBN should be retained for an audio-book or e-book and is
consistent with the requirement for printed works. As the number of selfpublishing authors grows we will keep this requirement under review, in the
context of loans from public libraries.
Shares
Fixed Shares for audio-books
34.
We are proposing fixed shares of PLR for the author, narrator and
producer of an audio-book. This is different from the PLR Scheme’s rules
for authors and illustrators of printed books and e-books who are required to
seek agreement on the apportionment of their shares of the PLR based on
their respective contributions to the book.
35.
We take the view that a fixed share approach will be more convenient for
audio-book authors, narrators and producers as:
(a) we anticipate that it will be difficult to reach agreement on shares based on
contribution given the very different nature of the contribution made by
each to an audio-book (e.g. a simple page count which can be used in the
case of printed books is not possible for sound recordings); and
(b) for the very practical reason that in many cases arrangements for the
production and publication of the audio-book will have been managed by
intermediaries and the contributors may find it difficult to establish the
contact that will be needed as a basis for discussions over PLR shares.
36.
With fixed shares, individual contributors can separately register their share of
the PLR payment without the requirement to identify and seek agreement
from the other contributors.
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Apportionment
37.
We are proposing that the author, as the originator of the text of the
book, should receive the largest share of the PLR payment and that this
should be 60%. We propose that the remaining shares should be
divided equally between the narrator and producer who would then
qualify for 20% each.
38.
Under the current PLR Scheme, editors and translators of printed and bound
books qualify for fixed shares of 20% and 30% respectively of the whole book.
We are proposing that editors and translators of audio-books should
receive 20% and 30% shares of the author’s 60% share and not of the
whole audio-book.
39.
We take the view that the contribution made by an editor or translator may be
seen in the context of preparing the author’s text for publication as an audiobook. It would therefore seem appropriate for their shares to be found from
the author’s share, and not impinge on the shares allocated to the narrator
and producer. For authors, fixed shares could mean that their share of the
PLR payment in audio-book versions of their work may be smaller than the
share they receive from the PLR payment for the printed version of the same
work.
40.
We take the view that the allocation of a substantial 60% share in an audiobook’s PLR payment to the author means that it is fair and reasonable to
allow for an editor’s and/or translator’s share to be deducted from the author’s
share of the PLR payment.
General exclusions
Remote e-book downloads
41.
Remote downloads of e-books (e-books downloaded outside a library’s
premises) are not covered in this consultation and are not covered in the
provisions in the DEA which will extend the PLR. This would stray into the
communication to the public right in the Copyright Directive9 which has been
implemented in section 182CA of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act
1988 (i.e. “making available to the public by electronic transmission in such a
way that members of the public may access it from a place and at a time of
their choosing”).
9
Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of
certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, also known as the Information Society
Directive or the InfoSoc Directive
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
One loan of a work at a time
42.
The 2009 Government Response to the Consultation on the Extension of
Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print Formats10 set
out the intention that PLR will be paid on the basis of one loan to one reader
at one time, and in Response to the Sieghart Review in 2013, the
Government stated that the interests of publishers and booksellers should be
protected so that a library should only lend a single digital copy of a work at a
time. This consultation is restricted to the implementation of the provisions of
section s 43 of the DEA (new rights holders and new formats), and the matter
is therefore not within scope for this consultation. However, please note that
the European Commission has recently launched a review of the copyright
rules of the European Union and this covers e-lending by libraries more
generally.11
10http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/PLR_nonprint_books
_government_response.pdf
11 http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/copyright-rules/index_en.htm
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Do you agree with the proposed amendments to the PLR Scheme set out
below?
1.
It is proposed that pre-existing contractual arrangements between
libraries and rights holders for loans of audio-books and on-site e-books
should be preserved to run their agreed term of law, but such libraries
and rights holders would be free to negotiate the termination of such
arrangements in favour of the newly expanded PLR Scheme.
2.
We are proposing to use the naming of an author and narrator on the
case of an audio-book to verify eligibility for the PLR Scheme,
3.
We are proposing that producers, editors and translators of an audiobook will be required to provide a copy of their contract with the
publisher when registering with the Board under the PLR Scheme.
4.
We propose that the requirement for an ISBN for an audio-book or ebook is consistent with the requirement for printed and bound books.
5.
We are proposing fixed shares for the author, narrator and producer of
an audio-book.
6.
We are proposing that the author, as the originator of the text of an
audio-book, should receive the largest PLR share and that this should
be 60%. We propose that the remaining shares should be divided
equally between the narrator and producer who would then qualify for
20% each.
7.
We are proposing that editors and translators of audio- books should
receive 20% and 30% shares of the author’s 60% share of the PLR
payment rather than a fixed share of the total PLR payment for the whole
audio-book.
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Annex A
Consultees
Organisations representing the interests of rights holders
Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS)
Authors' and Performers' Lending Agency (APLA)
British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies (BAPLA)
British Copyright Council (BCC)
British Entertainment Cinematograph & Theatre Union (BECTU)
British Equity Collecting Society (BECS)
Design and Artists' Copyright Society
Royal Society of Literature (RSL)
Society of Authors
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Local government organisations
Local Government Association (LGA)
Public Library organisations
Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
Society of Chief Librarians (SCL)
Literary agents and publishers
Association of Authors' Agents
Audiobook Publishing Association
BBC Worldwide
ISIS
Publishers' Association
Publishers’ Licensing Society
Ulverscroft
Central government departments and organisations
All Party Parliamentary Group for Writers
All Party Parliamentary Group for Libraries
British Library
CyMAL: Museums, Libraries & Archives Wales
Arts Council England
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Intellectual Property Office (IPO)
Northern Ireland Executive
Scottish Executive
Scottish Library & Information Council (SLIC)
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Other organisations
Askews Library Services
Consumer Focus
The Reading Agency
Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
Share the Vision
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Annex B
Seven Consultation Criteria
1. When to consult
Formal consultation should take place at a stage when there is scope to influence
the policy outcome.
2. Duration of consultation exercises
Consultations should normally last for at least 12 weeks with consideration given to
longer timescales where feasible and sensible.
3. Clarity of scope and impact
Consultation documents should be clear about the consultation process, what is
being proposed, the scope to influence and the expected costs and benefits of the
proposals.
4. Accessibility of consultation exercises
Consultation exercises should be designed to be accessible to, and clearly targeted
at, those people the exercise is intended to reach.
5. The burden of consultation
Keeping the burden of consultation to a minimum is essential if consultations are to
be effective and if consultees’ buy-in to the process is to be obtained.
6. Responsiveness of consultation exercises
Consultation responses should be analysed carefully and clear feedback should be
provided to participants following the consultation.
7. Capacity to consult
Officials running consultations should seek guidance in how to run an effective
consultation exercise and share what they have learned from the experience.
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Consultation on the Extension of the Public Lending Right to Rights Holders of Books in Non-print
Formats
Confidentiality & Data Protection
Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information,
may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to
information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA), the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004).
If you want information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be
aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public
authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of
confidence.
In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the
information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure
of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an
assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic
confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded
as binding on the Department.
The Department will process your personal data in accordance with the DPA and in
the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be
disclosed to third parties.
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